Pupil Premium

Pupil Premium

Disadvantaged (Pupil Premium) Impact at Alexandra Park School

What is Pupil Premium?

Schools receive additional income called the Pupil Premium. This money is allocated by the Government to help schools support children from low income families and children in care. The amount of additional funding schools receive is based on the number of children who are entitled to receive free school meals or have been in the past 6 years or are looked after children. “Disadvantaged pupils’ is used to refer to only those pupils for whom the pupil premium provides support.

Nationally, disadvantaged children achieve less compared to other students. For example, there is a large gap in the attainment in terms of the percentage who achieve 5A*-C including English and Maths. The most recent available figures for the ‘national’ gap are from 2014 when it was 28%. Pupil Premium money has been given to help schools close this gap.

The Pupil Premium provides support for pupils who:

1. were registered as eligible for free school meals at any point in the last 6 years (FSM)2. have been looked after for 1 day or more (CLA)3. were adopted from care on or after 30 December 2005, or left care under: - a special guardianship order - a child arrangements order (CLA)

For the financial year 2014-2015, the Pupil Premium funding that schools receive has increased and is higher for CLA than FSM. It is £935 per secondary pupil and for CLA £1900 per pupil.

How much do we receive?

The funding has been used in a number of ways to 'close the gap' and support attainment of our Pupil Premium students. These are summarised below.

The main barriers to educational achievement faced by disadvantaged students at Alexandra park School

The Government has published independent research to demonstrate the barriers to attainment faced by disadvantaged students. Principally these include lower prior attainment, and especially difficulties with literacy and numeracy, and issues relating to attendance and behavior.

At APS we are proud of our ‘success for all’ ethos. To achieve this, we ensure that we view all students as individuals and we never assume that students within a particular group face similar barriers or that they have less potential to succeed.

In line with this ethos, our primary strategy is to provide outstanding teaching for all students at all times. Where specific additional needs are identified we offer additional targeted support, and alternative approaches wherever possible.

An example of a significant barrier to students’ progress in our experience at APS is students falling behind in literacy and numeracy. The Year 7 cohort that joined the school in 2016/17 includes a number of student who have not reached age-related expectations: 32 in maths, 33 in reading and 28 in Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling. These students will benefit from the strategies outlined below.

What we spent funding on during the academic year 2015-16 and will spend it on in 2016-17

Personalise the timetable to ensure that each student follows an appropriate curriculum

Full-time staffing to provide dedicated literacy support to enable all students to access the curriculum; literacy support can be either 1:1 or in small groups

Full-time staffing to provide additional numeracy support across KS3

Provide extra support for English and maths at KS4, including booster classes and targeted intervention, ensuring all disadvantaged students have relevant resources.

An additional teacher employed in Maths and English to facilitate smaller classes

Employ Pastoral Support assistants, non-teaching staff dedicated to each year group, to ensure swift communication with families, with a special focus on monitoring attendance punctuality of disadvantaged students.

Run intervention sessions in The Bridge which address the academic, social, emotional and behavioural needs of students, including concerns that prevent any disadvantaged student from using appropriate learning behaviour in mainstream lessons

Offer an extended school day so resources and support are available before and after school, ensuring that all disadvantaged students can access computers and other resources that may not be available at home

Provide support for students at lunchtime and after school to enhance the quality of their class work and their homework ensuring that there is always a supervised space for disadvantaged students to work within

Deliver language support, for students for whom English is not their first language, to accelerate acquisition of English

Ensure pupils are able to access appropriate resources and opportunities, including contributing to the costs of school trips for disadvantaged pupils if feasible and considered appropriate by the school.

Schedule booster and revision classes across a range of subjects including English and Maths on weekends and during the holidays

Disadvantaged (Pupil Premium) Impact at Alexandra Park School

How do we measure impact?

Systematic use of data to monitor the progress of students

Leadership and management structure ensures continual monitoring and review of initiatives and procedures

Regular consultation with all stakeholders, including students and parents / carers, to consider all viewpoints, allow suggestions for development and ensure collaborative review of practice

We hold annual pupil premium strategy review with the Leadership Team and Governors in November

What has the impact been so far?

Quality support is given to disadvantaged students to ensure that they are enabled to achieve outcomes which reflect their ability.

Disadvantaged students are well supported in the run up to examinations; and there is excellent attendance for all exams.

Our disadvantaged students now make excellent progress. This has not always been the case. Back in 2012, the value added score for disadvantaged students was 995. Since then value-added for disadvantaged students has been sonsistently high (value-added was 1010 in 2015).

In contrast with the national picture, at APS we have succeeded in 'closing the gap' in performance between disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged students. in 2015, the progress 8 score for disadvantaged students was 0.15, above the national average but below the performance of non-dissadvantaged students at the school. In 2016, disadvantaged students have a progress 8 score of 0.44, well above the national average and in line with all students at APS.

Disadvantaged students' attendance has improved from 91.9% in 2012 to 93.8% in 2015.

What has the impact been so far? 2015 / 2016 Results

2016

2015

Key Indicators

APS Disadvantaged

APS All

National

APSDisadvantaged

APS

National

Progress 8 Score

0.44

0.44

0.00

0.15

0.60

0.00

Attainment 8 Score

51.36

57.8

49

44.96

60.70

47.78

% achieving a good grade in English and Maths

69%

79%

62%

56%

84%

63%

% attaining EBacc(% entered in brackets)

30% (34%)

42% (44%)

23%

20% (24%)

46% (51%)

24% (28%)

We are very pleased with our disadvantaged results as in 2016 they have achieved a progress 8 score of 0.44, in-line with the overall APS score of 0.44 and far exceeding the national average for all students of 0.00.

Disadvantaged (Pupil Premium) Impact at Alexandra Park School

Headline Progress: Pupil Premium / Disadvantaged students

APS disadvantaged students Progress 8 score 0.19 above the Haringey average for all students